Meta’s Texas Solar Deal Sits Beside a Bigger Gas Power Plan

Meta’s Texas solar purchase agreement backs a 144-megawatt project, while the company plans to power a new El Paso data center with a 366-megawatt gas-fired plant. The figures describe capacity, not equivalent amounts of electricity produced, but the contrast makes the key distinction clear: buying renewable-energy attributes can support Meta’s clean-energy accounting without removing the pollution from gas generation.

What the Starling Solar agreement covers

Meta and developer Apex Clean Energy have entered a power purchase agreement tied to Starling Solar in Gonzales County, Texas. The deal lets Meta financially benefit from energy generated by the 144-MW project and claim all of its environmental attributes. Apex said the project would not have been built without Meta’s backing; operations are scheduled to begin in 2027, according to the September 30, 2026 report. The agreement and project details

The report does not give an annual generation estimate, so 144 MW should be read as the project’s stated capacity, not as a measure of how much electricity it will produce over a year. Nor does the agreement mean Starling’s solar power will physically flow to a particular Meta data center.

The larger planned plant is gas-fired

Meta plans to power a new data center in El Paso with a 366-MW gas-fired plant. Meta told Inside Climate News that natural-gas options are part of its AI data-center expansion plans, but the reporting does not give a site-specific reason for choosing gas in El Paso. The El Paso plan and Meta’s statement

The two capacity figures show different scales, not a direct comparison of delivered electricity. Still, they put the tension in plain view: the planned gas plant is more than twice the stated capacity of Starling Solar. Meta’s environmental-attribute claim can offset some gas-fired energy in the company’s electricity-use tally, but it does not erase the gas plant’s climate and local air-pollution impacts. The accounting distinction and pollution impacts

Grid benefits do not settle the accounting question

Apex expects Starling to bolster the Texas grid. The report says Texas faced record-high electricity demand that month, surpassing the previous record set in 2023, amid high temperatures and an influx of data centers. Meta and Apex also project $27 million in tax revenue over the project’s life, $26.3 million in landowner payments, and 400 to 450 jobs during construction. These are project expectations, not reported outcomes. The grid context and projected local benefits

Meta says its exit from the RE100 renewable-energy initiative does not change its clean-energy commitment. The company reported contributing more than 30 gigawatts of new clean energy to grids across the country and retaining a goal to match its electricity use with 100 percent clean and renewable energy. Those company-wide claims and goals describe its broader accounting and commitments; they do not establish that the El Paso facility itself will run on renewable power. Meta’s stated clean-energy position

That distinction matters as AI data-center demand grows: a company can support new renewable generation and still add gas-fired capacity. Starling may bring grid and local economic benefits, but those benefits do not make the planned El Paso plant’s emissions disappear.